On to
a win­ner

KATHER­INE HICKS STRIKES
VIC­TORY IN THE NEW SEA­SON OF WIN­NERS & LOSERS

The nick­name was be­stowed on ac­tor Kather­ine Hicks as her col­leagues dis­cov­ered her sense of fun dur­ing long days on set set­tling in as a full-time cast mem­ber on Seven drama Win­ners & Losers.

And on this day, hav­ing come in on a rare day off shoot­ing to grab lunch and chat, the mis­chief level is run­ning high as she cheek­ily ex­plains how you pre­pare for an on-screen snog.

‘‘You just break it down,’’ says Hicks (pic­tured), who plays the role of Sam Macken­zie – the sur­prise – and mostly un­wel­come, new ad­di­tion to the Gross fam­ily on Win­ners & Losers.

‘‘The best way is to be com­pletely open and talk about it and pick the mo­ment that needs to be punc­tu­ated so you know when it’s go­ing to hap­pen,’’ Hicks says.

‘‘That way you don’t get ner­vous and end up kind of ran­domly suck­ing face. You just make it re­ally tech­ni­cal, then it’s less weird and awkward.’’

All of which in­di­cates Hicks’s Sa­man­tha might be in for the long haul on the fam­ily drama this sea­son, de­spite this week’s episode in which it seems her days try­ing to get to know her new­found fam­ily are num­bered.

Hicks burst into the show at the end of last sea­son, turn­ing up as the ’sur­prise’ daugh­ter of Brian Gross (Fran­cis Greenslade) – the prod­uct of a one night stand when Brian and his wife Tr­ish (Denise Scott) were tem­po­rar­ily sep­a­rated.

Sam was un­wel­come then, and in last week’s sea­son opener was again pushed away, when, with an un­in­ten­tional but ap­palling lack of tim­ing, she reap­peared at the Gross fam­ily home dur­ing a wake.

Cue the most awkward of fam­ily lunches as Brian tries to get to know his daugh­ter, his wife grimly pre­tends ev­ery­thing is fine, daugh­ter Jenny (Melissa Ber­g­land) fears for her place in the fam­ily, and brother Pa­trick (Jack Pear­son) makes lit­tle ef­fort to con­ceal his bit­ter­ness to­wards the new ad­di­tion.